Astera gets an Elite touch in Australia
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Elite, headed by owner and founder Darren Russell, will typically supply a full production package – lighting, audio, video rigging and staging – to its clients, embracing all sectors of the industry, from music events to corporates and industrials, TV and theatre productions.
Last year Elite purchased 96 x Astera AX1 PixelTubes in kits of eight with “all the bits”, supplied by ULA Group, Astera’s exclusive distributor for Australia and New Zealand.
More recently – and in spite of the pandemic - the company has invested in another 48 AX1’s and 48 x Astera AX5’s with a full complement of accessories which are for general stock, delivered by Astera’s Australian distributor, ULA Group.
One of the first AX1 events where Elite used all 96, was a gala dinner at Parliament House, the seat of the Australian government, for which Elite is the in-house audiovisual supplier.
Forty AX1s were used as table centres and the balance of 56 built into a spectacular chandelier that was flown in the centre of the Great Hall – the largest of 11 event spaces in Parliament House. All 96 fixtures were then pixel mapped.
The lights have proved ideal for numerous applications from room lighting to table centres, from architectural illumination to highlighting gardens and pathways, thanks to the IP rating which makes them very usable outdoors, and from stages and music shows to car launches and brand activations.
So far, Elite has always used its Astera's wireless, but they all appreciate the flexibility of being able to run them wired if necessary. Venues like Parliament House have a limited power supply for an effect like a room-wrap in light, and it’s also much easier to achieve without having to run cables over doorways and across floors.
They created another artwork out of AX1s at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) for the launch of an expo about the life and work of one of Australia's most acclaimed and beloved actors, Heath Ledger. This time the AX1s were hung all around the ceiling of the foyer at different random heights.
